Texas Instruments, DST, IIMB launch India Innovation Challenge 2016

BENGALURU: Boosting the student startup community, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) has partnered with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) to launch the India Innovation Challenge 2016.

TI and IIMB Bangalore signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among engineering students. The initiative aims to propel the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative through student startups and to contribute to the country’s manufacturing ecosystem.

The press release explained that top teams in the innovation challenge will get a chance to incubate their startups at IIMB’s reputed incubation center, the Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL). TI will provide technical resources and guidance throughout the challenge, including tool support and mentoring to design, make prototypes, and to create the final product. The DST will provide funding of INR 3.5 crore to the student startups, which will go toward the product development fund of INR 1.5 crore and seed fund of INR 2 crore for the top teams to incubate their start-ups. Student engineers with the best products in the challenge will receive business mentoring from IIMB though the incubation process.

TI has been successfully conducting engineering and design challenge contests for the past six years. Last year, the challenge attracted more than 11,000 engineering students in India from more than 650 colleges around the country. This year, the India Innovation Challenge has expanded its canvas to create an ecosystem that encompasses government, academia, and industry.

The contest follows TI’s efforts toward industry-oriented engineering education to foster innovation in students. Every year TI trains a large number of engineering students on state-of art technologies through labs, workshops and curriculum integration. TI has set up 2400+ labs in engineering colleges, trained engineering faculty and students on cutting edge technologies and worked toward industry relevant curricula in India’s engineering programs at universities.

“At Texas Instruments India, we believe that industry-oriented engineering education fosters innovation for economic growth. TI India's university program strives toward that objective by inculcating experiential learning amongst engineering students and strengthening the education community as a whole. India Innovation challenge is one such initiative where we enable engineering students to bring their ideas to life by creating innovative solutions for society while gaining invaluable technical knowledge in the process. TI India, IIMB and DST coming together this year is a huge step in that direction, which will lead Indian engineering students from idea to invention to industry and help them become successful entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” said Santhosh Kumar, President and MD, Texas Instruments India.

“Over the years, the TI Design Contest has grown to become a massive platform for technical talent. Our partnership with IIMB and DST is aimed at enabling talented engineering students in India and helping budding entrepreneurs to ‘Make in India’. TIIC will help enkindle passion in students by providing a perfect across-the-board platform for a collaborated, resourceful and connected ecosystem. IIMB’s multi-faceted expertise makes it a unique pillar for TIIC 2016 and with its top-notch business mentorship young engineering minds can shape the future of the nation,” said Sanjay Srivastava, Director, University Program, Texas Instruments India.

Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chairperson, Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development, at IIM Bangalore, said, “The Innovation Challenge has a huge footprint in terms of the number of colleges and the students participating in it. IIMB sees an exciting opportunity to collaborate with TI to take the contest to the next level, both in terms of the kind of ideas that would emerge from the contest as well as in terms of taking these ideas to the market. With the support of DST, IIMB believes that with its experience in incubation, understanding of entrepreneurship and its network of mentors, it can help transform the best ideas from this contest into successful enterprises. This in turn could lead to a virtuous spiral where the prospects of commercializing product ideas into enterprises will draw even more bright technologists and inventors, amongst the students, to participate in the contest.”

“DST has been playing pivotal role in promotion of science and technology in the country. With TI and its India Innovation Challenge providing tremendous thrust to the development of technology among young engineering students, DST sees an opportunity to promote entrepreneurship and take this initiative to a higher level by supporting these young students create their own startups. DST has always strived to support major science projects and entrepreneurial initiatives which have relevance to national needs and are also relevant to development and demand of newer technology in the country. With IIMB offering their expertise with business mentoring and incubation support, DST aims to take another step forward to encourage students at the grassroots level, to bring fresh ideas, solutions and products to the Indian market and contribute to India's manufacturing ecosystem,” said  H K Mittal, Advisor and Head, NSTEDB, DST, GOI.